yoo-hoo! I’m back!
My goodness - that was an extended - and completely unplanned - break! I feel like the weary traveller who’s arrived home to find the potted plants dead, the furniture covered in dust, and the mail all over the front lawn!
I haven’t been anywhere - well, apart from Sydney for the weekend - just caught up in the busyness of school and family and work. We’ve all been a bit unwell, there were special events to prepare for and two weeks just disappeared.
We had a lovely Halloween Birthday Party last Friday for Abigail’s best friend Peter - what a lucky boy, born on Halloween. I made Halloween bunting and napkins and a table runner and a Sally costume for Abigail (from Nightmare before Christmas).
Julian carved a marvellous pumpkin, and together we cooked up slimy dip (Nigella’s pea and greek yoghurt), brains and blood clots (Martha’s popcorn and cranberry balls), worms in mud (Chocolate crackles with lolly grubs sticking out) and a pumpkin pie. It was an incredibly busy few days and a fun Friday night.
I feel as if I could make bunting and napkins in my sleep …
and indeed they’re on my Christmas present list … in Christmassy fabrics of course!
But my table runner provided the at-long-last opportunity to try my hand at free-motion quilting. And how addictive is that! :-)
I began just doing the coral looking wiggles round and round the plain six inch blocks - the first block had a few long lines and sharp corners and we won’t even look at the stitch length!
Then after several of them, I decided to try a concentric flower on the pieced blocks - and that was such fun! Bit tricky at first, when the circle-y shape was small but I got better.
And this spooky table runner is dedicated to the fabulous and lovely Amy over at Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts who sent me these gorgeous fat quarters and charm pack,
and the quilting is inspired by the talented and dear Nanette over at Freda’s Hive for her suggestion to start on a small square that I wanted to keep and just keep practising! Without the wonderful encouragement and friendship I have received from these quilters and friends, my 2008 would have been an uneventful year.
So the runner has a long path winding it’s way through a Halloween eve from the spookily lit windows of home, to the eerie darkness of the churchyard. Next year I’ll set it up with appropriate Pappo and Playmobile figures and we’ll get a good story going.
And just in case you were wondering … I didn’t get it quilted for the dinner - it laid on the table as a flimsy! And when Pete started fussing with a pumpkin, I snatched a glass votive out of his - or rather, the pumpkin’s - way, burnt my fingers and dropped the candle which sloshed wax all over one of the runner blocks! Ooops! Never mind, Shannon Lush (Australian housekeeping guru) says to put it in the freezer and then the wax will pick away easily. I’ll be doing that when I’ve finished quilting my houses and bound the quilt. :-
p.s. also making blogging a bit tricky over the last fortnight was the demise of my laptop - it was six years old, had absolutely no memory, was ridiculously slow, the battery was kaput and finally, the power supply died. Now I’m standing at the laptop on the bookshelf in the vestibule between the dining room and bathroom - yay! I absolutely do not want to spend $2000 on another laptop - we’ll see how long I enjoy standing at the bookshelf :-( If you’ve emailed me lately and I’ve not responded - that’s my feeble excuse - Julian’s going to put my mail on this bookshelf laptop and then hopefully I’ll be back! Maybe I should buy a stool …
4 November, 2008 at 9:48 am
Lovely to see you are back! You´ve again made so beautiful items! The tablerunner is great! So nice fall colours!
Greetings to all the family! I keep my fingers crossed so that you can solve the laptop problem!
4 November, 2008 at 10:40 am
Nice to have you back. I’m sorry to hear that your laptop pulled a nasty trick on you, but it looks like Halloween was a treat! I love the Sally costume, and the runner is a great idea. If the freezer trick doesn’t get all the waxout, my father-in-law taught me to iron fabric between lots of paper towels: the wax heats up and soaks into the towels, apparently.
4 November, 2008 at 11:25 am
I love that runner. That is by far my favorite fabric. The fat quarter shop has it on sale so of course I had to get more.
4 November, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Love the runner! Isn’t free motion quilting fun? I also love, LOVE the dress! Did you use a pattern? I would love to get one of those made.
Sorry to hear about the laptop. I hope you got all you needed off of it before it died.
4 November, 2008 at 2:37 pm
The Halloween sewing projects are beautiful. I’m thinking of making some bunting.. Was it difficult to make the points?? I’m thinking it would be fun for birthdays :-)
Putting the fabric in the freezer should take the wax out. I did it once, it took a bit of work getting all the wax out of the fabric, but it was definately the easier way to go!
4 November, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I’m glad you’re back! I’ve missed your posts. Love the Sally costume. My 4-year old wanted to be Sally, but I didn’t have time to make anything for her. I convinced her to be Tinkerbelle instead.
4 November, 2008 at 6:24 pm
YEA! You’re back! You outdid yourself for Halloween and the birthday party! I love what you did. That photo of the jack-o-lantern in front of the bunting on the stained glass window is wonderful! And your table runner AND MACHINE QUILTING (YEA!) are stellar! Very, Very, Very, Very nice! But that Sally costume really takes the proverbial cake! Maybe I’ll insinuate that movie into our play list so that someone thinks of being Sally next year. My niece was born on Halloween and I’ve always thought what a great regular birthday theme to be able to rely on. Of course, the birthday person might eventually get bored with it?? I also hope everyone is feeling better!
4 November, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Wondered what was up with you - so sorry you’ve not been feeloing the best. I hope everyone is better now. I missed you! Love the Halloween table runner!
4 November, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I am so glad you are back! I had been wondering where you’d disappeared to. The party looks like a lot of fun. My kids thought I was a total spoil sport when I entirely ignored all the Halloween paraphenalia which appeared in the shops. A birthday party is an excellent excuse to play around with that theme. I love the photo of the buniting in the window.
4 November, 2008 at 10:55 pm
oooo.. your free motion quilting is lovely. I have to get brave enough to try this.
Hope you get the wax out ok.
4 November, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Nice to see you back and still so busy, too!
Hugs - Lurline!
10 November, 2008 at 5:13 am
Hi!!!
I am so glad that you are back. I missed you and all of your fun projects. Aren’t you excited about Obama?? I sure am. I love your halloween scene and the fun runner and all of your Free-motion quilting excitement. More to come!
JMB